


Only Love Can Truly Save the World

by AgentMaryMargaretSkitz



Series: Tales of the Crook and the Assassin [50]
Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Guess how this ends!, Wonder Woman AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-22
Updated: 2018-07-22
Packaged: 2019-06-14 09:07:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15385440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgentMaryMargaretSkitz/pseuds/AgentMaryMargaretSkitz
Summary: Wonder Woman AU: A delivery to Sara Lance sends her on a trip down memory lane to when she first came to the world of man to fight the god of war.





	Only Love Can Truly Save the World

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Jael](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jael/gifts).



> This was meant to be a birthday gift to Jael, but it gained a mind of it's own and I wrote out pretty much everything in this movie because I have no self control. Happy belated birthday and I'm so sorry it's late.

_“I used to want to save the world, this beautiful place. But I knew so little then. It is a land of magic and wonder worth cherishing in every way. But the closer you get the more you see the great darkness simmering within….”_

               Sara Lance had only just entered her office at the Louvre when the two men entered with a briefcase. She had figured that they were coming for her as soon as she saw the logo on the armored car near the museum’s entrance. Raatko Industries had never been in contact with many museums regarding art. Besides, she did happen to know how Nyssa Raatko spent her nights in Gotham City.

“Merci,” Sara said as she received the briefcase from the men.

               The pair left without a word. Once they were gone, Sara undid the catches on the case and opened it up. Inside was a photographic plate with a familiar group of people. A scrap of paper was placed above it. Sara moved that to the side to gaze at the faces on the plate for a brief moment. Then her attention returned to the note that had come with it.

_Found the original after some digging. I hope one day I shall hear your story._

Despite the lack of signature, Sara knew that Nyssa had been the author. A small smile touched her lips momentarily before she looked back to the negative. She looked at herself standing between Leonard and Jax. The woman on that plate had known so little then of the world and herself.

Despite her best efforts, Sara felt herself sink back into the past.

* * *

 

“Let’s get you back to your lessons before another tutor quits.”

“Why?” Sara asked her mother as Dinah urged her horse onwards. “Don’t you think it’s time for me to start my training?  Laurel is starting hers.”

“I did not want her to,” Dinah sighed. “Your sister is stubborn, not to mention she is older. But she will never need to fight, and neither will you.”

“Why not?” Sara whined as they came up towards a group of Amazon warriors with a familiar face at the front. “Shado thinks I’m ready.”

The Amazon Queen raised an eyebrow at her general.

“I can begin showing her a thing or two,” Shado said casually. “Sara should at least be able to defend herself.”

“And who would she need to defend herself from?”

“In the case that Themyscira is invaded.”

“But isn’t that the reason I have the greatest warrior in our history leading an entire army of Amazons, General Shado?”

Shado smiled. “While I hope a day never comes that calls upon her to fight, a scorpion must know how to sting if it is threatened.”

“Sara is still a child, Shado. She and Laurel are the only ones. Please let them be that way.”

“Mother-”

“Enough,” Dinah commanded, ending the conversation as they arrived back to the tutor.

* * *

 

That night, after Dinah had told her the story of the gods, Ares, and the Amazons, Sara waited until she was certain her sister was asleep before slipping out from her blanket.

“Sara?”

The blonde whirled around to see her older sister sitting up in bed, rubbing sleep from her eyes.

“Go back to sleep, Laurel,” Sara whispered as she put on her cloak.

“I know you’re going to meet Shado,” Laurel yawned. “She’s been training you a little.”

“Because Mother won’t let me,” Sara reminded her. “I want to fight, Laurel.”

“Didn’t you remember what Mother told us about fighting? That it doesn’t make you a hero and that you can lose people because of it? She doesn’t want to lose us, we’re-”

“The most precious things to her,” Sara finished. “She sculpted you out of clay first and Zeus gave you life. Then Mother did it again with me because she couldn’t bear for a woman not to have a sister in the world, and Zeus gave me life.”

“And she also told us war is nothing to hope for,” Laurel added. “That’s why you lose people. Sara, you don’t have to fight. We’re safe here on Themyscira.”

“I know,” Sara nodded. “But I don’t want to be the only one here who can’t fight.”

With that, she slipped out of their room and into the palace grounds to meet Shado.

* * *

 

               Shado continued to train Sara in secret for a few more years until Dinah and some of the soldiers came across them one day. Sara thought it would be the end of her training days, yet it was the only the beginning. Dinah ordered her to be trained harder than any Amazon before so she could take care of herself in any circumstance. While Laurel eventually stopped being a solider and joined the senate once she was grown, Sara continued to train and fight with the rest of the Amazons.

               After many years, the young child who used to run off from tutors’ lessons grew into a formidable woman. Shado and the other Amazons had trained her well. When her mother came to watch one day, Sara fought back all the obstacles thrown her way until she was faced with Shado. She thought she had her, but the general fought dirty, shouting at her to never let her guard down, that she couldn’t assume every enemy would stop once they were down.

               Sara had crossed her bracelets in front of her to deflect Shado’s strike, not expecting the wave of energy that came off of them. It had knocked Amazons off their feet and injured Shado, something she’d never meant to do. Those who went to check on the general told her to stay back, so she left the valley and ran out toward the cliffs of the island. She was confused by what had happened and why it had occurred as she stared out at the ocean before her.

               A strange buzzing plucked her from her thoughts. Sara looked towards the sky to see a strange craft slowly falling down to splash in the sea. Themyscira never had anything come in through it’s barrier. The island’s protections had always warded away the outside world of men. But something had gotten through it now. Stepping back a few paces, Sara ran forward off the cliff to dive into the sea below.

               She reached the craft as it spilt apart into two and the upper half sank into the watery depths. Sara gazed down to see a person struggling to get free as they went down. Without hesitation, she dove in after them. By the time she reached the upper half of the craft and dislodged the sword blocking the escape attempt, Sara realized it was an unconscious man. She swam him up to the surface, keeping in mind to have his head above water, and brought him to the shores of the island.

               The man was still unconscious when she laid him out on the beach. Sara took in his appearance once they were both out of the water. Right now, he was sopping wet in a leather coat and trousers. His hair was cut short, but she could make out that it was dark with bits of grey mixed into it. She could feel stubble bristle against her hand as she reached a hand out and traced his jaw.

               Suddenly, his eyes snapped open and he began to cough. Sara pulled back as he rolled over to the side and coughed up water. When he turned back over, he stared up at her. Intelligence gleamed in his blue eyes as the man tilted his head at her.

“Wow,” he murmured softly.

Sara smirked a little. “You’re a man.”

“Yeah,” the man replied, sitting upright. “Where am I?”

“Themyscira.”

The man frowned. “Never heard of it. I thought there were no islands in my flight path. There shouldn’t be.”

“Who are you?”

A great groaning noise came from behind her. Sara stood back up and looked behind her to see a fleet of ships, including a massive one ready to tilt over into the sea, sailing right for Themyscira.

“I’m someone on your side,” the man said. “Those guys, on the other hand, are not. They’re Germans.”

“Germans?”

“We need to get out of here.”

“Sara!”

Sara looked back up towards the top of the cliffs. Her mother and sister were on their horses. Amazons took positions beside them, bows nocked.

“Ready your bows!” Dinah ordered.

“Who are they?” the man asked.

Sara didn’t answer. Her attention was focused on the cliff and the warriors on it.

“Fire!”

* * *

 

               A good portion of Germans had been taken out by the arrows, but many still made it to the beach where Sara and the man were on. Shado arrived with the Amazon army on the beach as those on the cliff fired arrows with ropes into the cliff face and swung down to the ground on those. However, the Germans’ weapons fired metal projectiles that could kill instantly if they struck the right place. Sara watched as one of the warriors’ bodies went slack as she swung down as soon as the object struck her in the chest.

               For a few moments, Sara watched her mother, Laurel, Shado, and the other Amazons battle the Germans in awe. The man ran towards the Germans and began to fight them too. Then Sara snapped out of her daze, picked up a sword, and joined in the battle. When almost all the opposition had been taken out, a shot rang out behind Sara. As she turned around, she watched Shado fall to the ground, bleeding.

               Sara screamed and ran over to the general, but there was nothing she could do. In her last breaths, Shado told her she needed to go and murmured the word ‘Godkiller’ before succumbing to the wound. Her mother and Laurel joined her by Shado’s body before the attention returned to the man. Sara reminded them that he had fought with them against the Germans instead of at their side. However, he refused to tell them any information about himself, not even his name. Laurel suggested they interrogate him in the senate hall, which the others agreed with. His fate would be decided once they had what they needed to know.

               The injuries were tended to and the dead were wrapped in shrouds instead of being left on the beach before the interrogation. Sara stood beside her mother as Laurel brought out the lasso of Hestia and wrapped it around the man. He didn’t say a word as he was brought in. However, Sara noticed that he was observing everything around him, as if trying to remember it.

“Who are you?” Laurel demanded once he was in the lasso.

“My name is Captain Leonard Snart,” the man said. “I’m a pilot with the American Expeditionary Forces. My serial number is eight-one-four-one-nine…two-one. I’m assigned to British Intelligence- okay, what the hell is this? Is there a reason it’s heating up?”

“The lasso of Hestia compels you to tell the truth,” Laurel explained. “Resistance is useless. What is your mission?”

“I’m still not clear on who you are, but you have no idea the amount of danger you’re in.”

“Tell us your mission,” Dinah commanded.

               Leonard eventually admitted he was a spy who had been sent to observe the leader of the German army, a Vandal Savage, during a visit to a military installation in the Ottoman Empire. The original information on the Germans was that they had nothing left, but Leonard had discovered that Savage was having the Ottomans build weapons for them. Said weapons had been developed by a scientist Savage had recruited, Valentia Vostak. Leonard had stolen her journal with formulas for poison gas and superweapons to set back her progress, but Vostak had noticed the theft and ordered him to be captured. In his escape from the outpost, Leonard had managed to destroy it, but Savage and Vostak fled the scene before that happened and sent an order to the naval forces to watch out for him.

“You need to let me free so I can get the journal back to British Intelligence in time,” Leonard told them. “If I get it to my superiors, it could stop hundreds of deaths from happening. It could even stop the war.”

The Amazons stared at him with puzzled expressions as he said this.

“War?” Sara asked. “What war are you talking about?”

               Leonard was equally puzzled by their lack of knowledge about the war to end all wars that had been going on for four years. Horror started to grip Sara as she heard how many soldiers and civilians had been killed in the conflict. How innocent people were slaughtered and their villages looted and burned once they were no longer there to protect them. She knew he was genuinely distraught by all of it given he was wrapped in the lasso. Hearing about it made her think back to the stories she had been told about the gods as a child, how one of them had been struck down to Earth from the heavens.

This war had to be Ares’s doing.

* * *

 

               The senate was unsure of what to do with the man they now had on the island and planned to discuss his fate more in the following day. Sara tried to make a case that Ares was behind the war Leonard had told them about. However, Dinah denied it and reminded Sara how it was only a story. When Sara volunteered to go out into the world of men with Leonard, Dinah refused to allow it, reminded her that she was not an Amazon, just the daughter of one.

               After a visit to the healer and finding out Leonard said she’d saved his life, Sara decided to go visit him in the caves where he was being held. He’d only just emerged from the baths and was putting on his clothes when she entered. Once he saw her, Leonard quickly pulled his shirt on, but not before Sara caught sight of the scars that marred his torso. By the reaction he’d had to her seeing them, she decided not to ask about them.

“Didn’t hear you come in,” Leonard said, turned back to her once he’d buttoned his shirt up.

Sara thought about the stories she knew of the world of men. “Are you a typical representation of your sex?”

“Depends on what exactly you mean by that. But I’m going to say yes.”

He picked up a circular object with a glass face.

Sara stepped closer to him. “What’s that?”

“A watch,” Leonard said. “A gift from my grandfather before he died.”

“What do you use it for?”

“Telling time. Figure out when you wake up, when you eat, when you need to meet someone.”

“Sounds like it controls you.”

“You’re not wrong,” Leonard smirked and shook his head. “Now, since you asked me some questions, can I ask some of my own?”

“Go ahead.”

“I know you’ve told me I’m on Themyscira, but where is it? What is this island exactly? Is it close enough to England? Is that how you know English?”

“English is just one of the hundreds of languages I know,” Sara explained. “Themyscira is the bridge to a world of greater understanding. It is the home of the Amazons.”

“The Amazons?” Leonard raised an eyebrow. “I thought they were just a myth.”

“Do we look like a myth to you?”

He snorted with a shake of his head. “That reminds me, I owe you a thank you. You saved my life pulling me out of that plane.”

“You were in trouble,” Sara said. “And thank you for what you did for us on the beach.”

“I wish I could have done more, maybe saved your general,” he replied. “Am I free to leave the island though? Now that I’ve told you all I know.”

“They’re still deciding your fate. I tried to see if the senate would let me accompany you out to the rest of the world, but my proposal was rejected. I thought it was our duty to defend the world. However, it seems that the others need more time to decide whether to intervene or not.”

“But you’re on board.”

“I am, but my mother is against me going. My sister doesn’t seem to approve either.”

“I can’t really blame her,” Leonard shrugged. “Your mother seems to care a lot about you. I told my sister not to become a nurse so she wouldn’t have to face as many horrors of the war as I do.”

“And you’re still going back to deliver a journal,” Sara reminded him.

“It’s not so much wanting to as making an attempt to. My grandfather told me that if you see something wrong happening, you can do nothing or you can do something. I grew up seeing people do nothing, and I don’t want to follow that example when something could do a world of difference.”

Leonard had no idea, but he had reminded her of what she needed to hear. She might not be an Amazon according to her mother, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t fulfill their duty to the world.

“I’ll be back at nightfall,” she told him. “Be ready to leave.”

* * *

 

The first thing from the tower that Sara took was a shield. Then the lasso of Hestia followed it. It would come in handy to help lead her and Leonard to Ares’s location. However, if she was to end this war, she would need to end the god of war with the Godkiller.

_“The gods gave us many gifts,” Dinah told her daughters. “One day you’ll know them all. We keep them in this great tower.”_

_Sara and Laurel followed her inside. The younger of the two sisters eagerly took in everything around her before running forward toward a sword in the center of the tower._

_“The Godkiller,” Laurel murmured as she came up beside her sister, remembering Dinah’s story._

_“It’s beautiful,” Sara said. “Who would wield it?”_

_Dinah looked down at her two daughters. “I pray that no one will never need to call it to arms. Only the fiercest among us could.”_

_Laurel and Sara looked at each other._

_“That is not you, Sara,” Dinah continued. “Nor you, Laurel. We are safe here. Neither of you should concern yourself about fighting or war.’_

_But Sara continued to stare at the sword, vowing to one day become worthy of it._

Sara stopped short when she saw the sword missing from the mount it normally rested upon. This wasn’t right. Unless someone had expected her to come and taken it ahead of time, it should have been there.

“You should take this.”

Sara whirled around to see her sister emerging from the shadows. In her hands was the Godkiller itself.

“Laurel?” Sara frowned. “What are you doing here?”

“I knew you’d never agree with the decision not to help the man,” her sister explained. “I figured you’d go seek out Ares and destroy him yourself. You never have been one to back away from a challenge.”

She passed the Godkiller to Sara. “Whatever you do, make sure you win.”

“Then come with me,” Sara offered. “We can make it our mission to find Ares and put an end to him.”

Her sister shook her head. “No.”

“No?”

“No,” Laurel repeated, smiling sadly. “This is your fight, Sara, not mine. I know you want to stop the war, and I believe that you can.”

Sara reached out and hugged her sister. “Thank you.”

Laurel embraced her tightly. “Sara.”

“What is it?”

“Make sure you end Ares once and for all.”

“I will.”

Sara turned to leave the vault. However, she stopped at the sight of red and blue armor in one of the cases.

Laurel came up behind her and smiled. “Take it too. You’ll need it if you’re going to battle in a war against Ares.”

* * *

 

               Sara watched as Themyscira transformed into fog once she and Leonard passed through the protective barrier. In her hands was the tiara that Shado had worn into every battle. Her mother had caught her before she left the island and bestowed it upon her. She admitted that she knew that she could not stop Sara in her quest, but warned her that leaving the island meant the possibility that she would never return. Even with the risk of never seeing her or Laurel ever again, Sara could not stand by while innocents died, and Ares lived on.

“Be careful in the world of men, Sara,” Dinah warned her before she left. “They do not deserve you.”

               With Themyscira behind her, Sara decided to start setting her sights on what was ahead of her. Ares would no doubt be where the fighting was heaviest. Leonard seemed hesitant to believe her about Ares and told her there was only so much two people could do in such a massive conflict. Sara assured him that she could do it before engaging in a short debate about sleeping arrangements that ended with Leonard lying at the front of the boat beside her.

“Most people tend to wait until marriage before sleeping with someone,” Leonard said as he settled against a sack.

Sara turned towards him. “Marriage?”

“Themyscira doesn’t have that?” he raised an eyebrow. “You go before a judge with someone, swear to love, honor, and cherish each other until death do you part. For some people, it works out. My parents were not among them.”

“Then why would they do it if it didn’t work out?”

“They might have loved each other once. I never really saw it though. But at least I got a sister from them.”

“Sisters are a gift,” Sara murmured, her thoughts returning to Laurel for a moment.

“I’m sorry you had to leave yours behind.”

“Me too. But the world of men needs me more than Themyscira does at this time.”

“Am I really the first man you’ve ever met?”

Sara nodded. “You are. I’ve never seen one before.”

“Not even your father? Your sister had to have at least seen him or met him?”

“We had no father. Our mother sculpted Laurel out of clay first and Zeus gave her life. But she couldn’t bear for her to be alone in the world without a sister, so I was made from clay next. Zeus gave me life too.”

If the story had surprised him, Leonard wasn’t showing it. “Well, that’s differently than how babies are made out here.”

“You mean procreation and reproductive biology?”

“Yes.”

“I know about that,” Sara told him. “And the pleasures of the flesh. The libraries on Themyscira house all twelve volumes of Clio’s treatises on bodily pleasures. I’ve read all of them. The conclusion was that men may be essential for procreation, but unnecessary when it comes to pleasure.”

“Well then.”

* * *

 

               London was nothing like Themyscira when Sara first glimpsed it. While her birthplace was bright and sunny, London was grey and smoggy. Even though it wasn’t pretty, it was still fascinating for Sara to see a city outside Themyscira. She stared around at everything in her path with wonder, asking Leonard questions as they walked through the streets. The war was not unfortunately in London, as Leonard had to deliver Dr. Vostak’s journal to his superiors before he could get her to the front. Sara made him swear again to take her to the war as soon as he brought the journal in. Before any of that could occur, Leonard stepped into a small booth and emerged from it a few minutes later to take her to meet someone.

               Once they walked into the lobby of what Sara assumed was an enormous store, Leonard brought her over towards a woman seated in a chair. She locked eyes with Leonard and grinned broadly, rising out of her seat. Her clothing was similar to what other women Sara has seen wearing, colored dark green with golden trim. She ran over and nearly knocked Leonard off his feet with a hug.

“About time you got here,” the woman scolded, but there was a teasing note in her voice. “Here I thought you’d gone and died on me.”

“Not a chance, sis,” Leonard smiled. “After all, I’m a survivor. You know that.”

“Yes, of course,” the woman rolled her eyes before turning to Sara. “So this is the woman you told me about over the phone? The one who saved your life?”

“She is. Lisa, this is Sara. Sara, this is my sister, Lisa. She’s my secretary.”

“Only because Lenny wouldn’t let me be a nurse,” Lisa added. “Becoming his secretary was a compromise so I could still do my part for the war effort.”

“And a secretary is?”

“I’ll tell you later,” Leonard interrupted as a mischievous glint appeared in Lisa’s eyes. “Lisa, did you bring the clothes?”

“Right here,” Lisa passed a cloth bag to Sara. “My brother told me to keep it down to no frills. Just a regular outfit that wouldn’t draw any attention.”

               Sara accepted the bag from Leonard’s sister as Lisa lead her to a dressing room. Even though she was already wearing clothing, it was still chilly in London. Having these clothes would allow her to blend in better with the crowds of the city, not to mention provide some extra warmth. All Sara hoped was that she would still be able to fight in the clothing.

Sara emerged from the dressing room. When Leonard saw her, he stared at her for a long minute. It took an elbow to the ribs from Lisa to make him snap out of it and thank her for getting to together on such short notice.

“Now, let’s go to wherever you need to get to, then the war,” Sara stated, picking up the Godkiller and the shield.

“Actually, you might want to pass the sword and shield off to Lisa,” Leonard advised. “She’ll get it back to my office, and we can get it back once we meet with my superiors.”

“Trust me, you don’t want to be running around London with that,” Lisa said. “I promise I’ll keep them safe.”

Sara thought it over before deciding that she would allow herself to trust Lisa.

“Guard these with your life,” she instructed as she passed over the shield and the Godkiller.

“I will,” Lisa told her. “You and Lenny go off and make sure you get the bigwigs to listen to whatever he has to say.”

“Lenny?” Sara bit back her smile as she and Leonard left Lisa and headed out of the building.

“Her nickname for me,” Leonard sighed, walking down the street. “Now, we’ve had enough good luck so far, so let’s get moving before it runs out.”

* * *

 

               Leonard had spoken too soon, as the duo ended up being followed by spies of Savage who cornered them in an alley looking for Dr. Vostak’s notebook. Had it not been for Sara’s bracelets, Leonard probably would have been bleeding out on the cobblestones instead of helping her fight the men. Lisa arrived to cut off one’s escape, although a cyanide pill prevented them from getting any information out of him.

               Once they finally reached the headquarters, Leonard entered a room and told her to wait outside for a minute. Sara, curious as she was about the world of men, entered to find dozens of them arguing loudly about how to proceed with the war. However, the presence of a woman silenced the group as one man managed to get up and speak, advocating for an armistice after pausing when he saw Sara. A man who Leonard was talking urged the both of them to get out.

               After the meeting disbanded, Leonard’s superior came striding out and berated him for interrupting and bringing a woman into the chambers. He countered that he had managed to retrieve Vostak’s notebook and that it needed to be taken to cryptography. Unfortunately, that didn’t seem to satisfy the man, who continued to shout at him. Leonard’s eyes darkened and Sara could tell he was getting ready to argue with the man. Fortunately, this never came to pass.

“Captain Snart,” a voice rang out as the man who had spoken for peace approached them. “I’d been told you’d been lost on your last mission. Yet here you stand, alive and well, not to mention with a new friend.”

“Sir, I am very sorry about this-” the general began.

“No, there was no harm done,” the newcomer said, turning his gaze to Sara. “If it weren’t for this woman, the room would have never quieted down for me to get a single word in. Sir Zaman Druce, at your service.”

Sara smiled. “Sara, pri-”

“Sara Lance,” Leonard said quickly. “This is Sara Lance. We’ve started working together. It’s because of her that I managed to survive so you could get Valentina Vostak’s notebook. I have a feeling in the information inside it could alter the way the war is going.”

“You stole this from Vostak?” Druce murmured, taking the notebook in his hands. “General, I think this should go to cryptography immediately, don’t you?”

“Yes, yes, of course,” the general nodded. “I’ll call a meeting of this immediately. Snart, bring Ms. Lance with you.”

“We’ll be there.”

As the general and Druce left, Sara turned to Leonard. “Sara Lance?”

“Best I could come up with on short notice. You’d get more questions if you said princess of Themyscira.”

“Sara Lance,” Sara repeated. “It’s not bad.”

* * *

 

“Sara! Sara, wait!”

               Sara ignored Leonard as she made her way down the staircase. The generals hadn’t been able to crack the writing in the journal until Sara realized it was in two different languages that she could read. There was a formula for a gas that was hydrogen-based, which Leonard pointed out would render gas masks useless. It went on to say that the gas would be released at the front, but the officers refused to send in any help to stop it. Sara had exploded at them, calling them all cowards and scolding them with their plans to keep sending in troops to fight rather than trying to stop something that could have massive consequences and prolong the war.

“Sara!” Leonard caught up to her. “I-”

“Those are your leaders?” she snapped at him, stopping on the stairwell. “They hide in their offices like cowards. How can they say things like that and believe them?”

“I don’t know if I even want to get in their heads, but-”

“You told me delivering the journal to them could change things, stop the war even! But you didn’t even fight for that against them.”

“It was a losing battle!” Leonard insisted. “I couldn’t change their minds about this, but that doesn’t matter. We’re going anyways.”

“You lied to them?”

“It’s what spies do,” he shrugged casually.

“If that’s what spies do,” Sara crossed her arms. “How do I know you’re not lying to me right now?”

“Where’s the truth-telling lasso?”

Sara looked around before opening her long coat to reveal it belted to her side. Leonard took the end of it and wrapped it around his wrist.

“I am taking you to the front, Sara. We are probably going to die doing this. This is a-”

Sara pulled it off his wrist before he could go on. “So what do we need to do now?”

“First off, we’re going to need reinforcements.”

* * *

 

               When they entered the bar, Sara had not been sure what Leonard was thinking when he said they’d get their reinforcements here. Soon, she was introduced to Francisco Ramon (“Call me, Cisco,” he’d said, giving her hand a shake), who Leonard said was a brilliant undercover operative that also possessed a genius for getting almost anything to work. Leonard slipped off somewhere else for a few moments, giving Sara the chance to talk to Cisco some more. During their conversation, she discovered that Cisco was together with Leonard’s sister.

               A brawl broke out on the other side of the bar, only to be broken up by Leonard. Moments later, he brought over one of the men who’d been involved in the fight. He was introduced to them as Mick Rory, an expert marksman, tough fighter, and Leonard’s oldest friends. Sara shook his hand as Leonard ordered a round of drinks for them all and explained his plan. Cisco and Mick weren’t entirely pleased to learn that they wouldn’t be getting paid and more stunned that they were going to take Sara to the front.

Their stunned expressions turned to awed surprise when the man Mick had been fighting with came at them with a gun and Sara threw him across the room.

               When Sara returned to the table, Lisa was entering with Druce. Leonard and Mick had their faces schooled into neutral expressions, although Cisco seemed a little more nervous. Druce explained to them that he’d had a feeling Leonard was going to disobey orders and plan a mission all on his own. Sara glanced over at Leonard, wondering how he was going to handle this new curveball.

“Have you come to stop us?” Leonard asked calmly.

Druce shook his head. “Here to aid you, in fact. This is a very honorable thing you’d decided to do, Captain Snart. So I’m come, unofficially, to offer you help. I’m familiar with how you operate, so I assume you’ve already formulated your first plan.”

“If Savage has another weapons facility, we’ll find it and destroy it. Same thing goes for Savage or Vostak. That’s the basics for now.”

“Well, your sister can work out of my office in order for suspicions to be lessened regarding this,” Druce offered, looked to Lisa.

Lisa gave a nod. “I think I could work with that.”

“I also believe you might require some financing,” Druce slid an envelope to Leonard. “This should last you a few days.”

Leonard opened the envelope as Sara peered over his shoulder. Inside was a stack of bills Sara recognized as the currency she’d seen around London.

“Thank you, sir,” Leonard nodded to Druce. “Glad you can see our side of things.”

Druce smiled. “Don’t thank me until you get back, Captain. And best of luck to you all.”

* * *

 

               It took a day for the team to get their gear ready and travel towards the front. Sara watched around her as soldiers said farewells to their loved ones and prepared to go off into war. She also saw the ones who were coming back wounded from it, all looking broken down and exhausted. Her mother’s words about never hoping for war came back to mind as Leonard told her those men were the lucky ones since they would be able to make it back home.

After a train and a boat, they walked until nightfall, when they reached a campfire with someone next to it.

“Jax!” Leonard called out.

A young black man turned around from the fire he was tending. “You’re late.”

“It took a while to get things assembled,” Cisco explained, giving him a hug. “It’s been a while.”

“Definitely.”

“How have you been?”

“Not too bad,” Jax looked around them. “I see you’ve got Mick here too.”

“Nice to see you again, kid,” Mick nodded as he took a seat on one of the logs around the fire.

Jax’s eyes fell on Sara. “This?”

“I’m Sara.”

“Jefferson Jackson,” he said, stepping closer and Sara realized how young he was. “I go by Jax.”

“You’re the smuggler Leonard told me about.”

“That I am. Snart, where did you find her?”

“She was the one who found me.”

“His plane crashed and he was about to drown. So I plucked him out of the sea,” Sara watched as Leonard opened a sack. “What’s that?”

“Goods for each side,” Leonard explained. “Tea for one, beer for the other, and books for all. Also, some guns for both too. Jax, how’d you get your hands on these?”

“A truck carrying them might have had some engine trouble,” Jax grinned. “While repairs were happening, I helped myself.”

Leonard gave an impressed nod. “Nice work, kid.”

Sara raised her eyebrows.

               After a while of catching up with Jax, the men fell asleep. Sara remained awake though, thinking about what tomorrow could possibly bring her. She was going right up to the fighting, which meant she was getting closer to Ares. Her hand wrapped around the hilt of the Godkiller as she remembered her promise to her sister to end him once and for all. If she was never going to see Laurel again, the least she could do was see that promise through.

Sounds like thunder echoed in the distance, making Sara sit up.

“German 77s,” Jax’s voice said behind her. “They’re some big guns.”

She turned around to see him no longer asleep but sitting upright and tending to the fire.

“There’s no sleep out on the front,” he went on. “Nothing seems to be able to stop the hate there.”

“I’ve been meaning to ask you,” Sara murmured. “You smuggle things to both sides. Who are you fighting for in this war?”

“I was born in America,” Jax explained, poking at the fire with a stick. “The British are allies with them, so I’d be happiest if they come out on top. But I don’t really fight in this war.”

“So you’re here for profit?”

“Everyone needs something right now. It’s not like there’s less hate for me back home.”

“You seem nice enough to me. How could someone hate you?”

“Most people just see the color of my skin and assume a mindset. Everyone who looks like me knows at least someone who got killed because of it.”

“How could someone do that to another human?”

“Hate runs deep,” Jax answered. “Some of us are able to escape it more than others. Snart’s one of the luckier ones.”

Sara looked over at where Leonard was sleeping.

“You should get some sleep,” Jax advised. “We’re going to need all the rest we can before we get to the front.”

* * *

 

               Their team were the only people heading towards the fighting aside from a few soldiers ahead of them. Everyone else seemed to be fleeing it. Most of them were civilians, dragging along crying children or whipping animals to try and make them go fasters. There were wounded soldiers too, one of whom was missing his legs and screaming on the hill to his fellow men as they passed by. The closer they got, the more shelling they had to dodge. Finally, Jax lead them down a ladder by a destroyed home to a network of trenches dug into the ground.

“You wanted me to take you to the war,” Leonard said to Sara as they walked through the muddy pathways. “Here you are.”

“Then where are the Germans?”

“A couple a’ hundred yards across the field,” Mick answered. “Get down!”

Sara ducked as a spray of dirt rained over her. As she was bending down, a hand grabbed her arm. She turned to see a woman pleaded for help. A baby was cradled in her arms as she explained that the Germans had everything and enslaved those who couldn’t run. The woman seemed ready to break down in tears as she wept it all to Sara.

“Where is this happening?”

“Veld,” the woman told her. “On the other side of No Man’s Land.”

“I’ll help them,” Sara promised before standing up and scanning for Leonard.

When she finally found and approached him, he and Jax had just finished talking with a couple soldiers.

“They say the new safe passage is at least a day away,” Jax told her once she arrived.

Sara shook her head. “We need to go now. There are people enslaved on the other side, their homes and food taken away from them.”

“Sara, we have to stay on mission,” Leonard said. “I know you want to help, but-”

“Innocent people dying and that’s not enough for you to try and cross.”

“This is No Man’s Land,” he explained, ducking down as another shell rained dirt on them. “It means that no man can cross it. These men have been here nearly a year and barely have made progress. Even if they try to cross, there are German soldiers pointing machine guns and ready to open fire at any second. I’m not even sure to where to begin on how to cross it.”

“So we just ignore the suffering?”

“Choices have to made in war, Sara. They’re not always good ones. We came here to stop Savage, and that takes priority over this. I’m sorry.”

Sara looked him dead in the eye. “You said no man can cross it.”

“Not without getting shot to pieces.”

“Then it’s a good thing I am not a man,” Sara smirked before schooling her face into a seriousness. “I came with you to stop Savage and defeat Ares. But I will not walk away from this town, not when these people need help.”

From the coat she wore, Sara withdrew Shado’s tiara. Taking a deep breath, she pushed it into her hair. She would do all she could to make Shado and her mother and Laurel proud. Despite the threat of Ares and Savage and Vostak, this was something she had to do.

She shed her cloak and climbed the ladder up out of the trench.

“Sara!” Leonard shouted.

“What the hell?” Cisco shrieked. “You’re gonna get yourself killed!”

               Sara ignored them and stepped onto the land above the trenches. She began to walk forward, watching as a bullet sailed her way from the German side of the trenches. Raising her bracelets, the princess of the Amazons deflected it away from her, doing the same with the next ones that came at her. She kept walking and deflecting, her confidence growing even more with every step that she took.

“Holy shit,” she heard Mick yell from the trenches.

               More Germans began to fire at her. Sara picked up her pace from a walk to a run, still deflecting bullets. A shell sailed her way, so she whipped out her shield and used it to knock the projectile far away from her. When she turned back, nearly to the other side, a stream of bullets, probably from the machine gun Leonard was talking about, were being shot right at her. She held the shield up again, bracing herself against the gunfire. Gunshots closer to her rang out and she turned to her left to see Leonard and Mick firing at the Germans in the trench. To her right, Cisco and Jax were doing the very same.

               A large explosion in the German trenches sent up a shower of dirt and flame. The gunfire stopped hitting her shield. Sara stood back up and took a running leap into the trenches while the soldiers from the side she had started on came out and ran across the battle field. In the trenches, she continued to fight the German soldiers with Leonard taking out some with his gun. When Sara looked up, she could see what had to be the town of Veld in the distance.

“Leonard!” she called out. When he looked at her, she nodded toward the town with her head. “Let’s go.”

“I’m right behind you!”

* * *

 

               Sara made her way through the German soldiers that were in her path, running across buildings until she reached the town square. Leonard, Cisco, Mick, and Jax were close behind her, taking out the soldiers on the ground where they could until they caught up with her. Altogether, they fought all the Germans on the ground until there were no more around. Sara thought the battle was over until a shot rang out and a young villager fell down dead.

“Sniper!” Cisco shouted as dirt sprayed up at Sara’s feet.

“Get everyone back inside,” Leonard shouted. “Mick, bell tower!”

“On it, boss!”

               Sara continued to get the rest of the villagers back inside so they wouldn’t be hit by the sniper. She could hear Leonard encouraging Mick to take the shot, but she never heard any come from his gun. Sooner or later, they were going to have to stop the sniper. Otherwise, who knew how many more lives he would take up there.

“Sara!”

She turned to see the men pressed against a large metal door that had come off the tank she’d thrown into the corner of the square. They were moving it upwards now though.

“Shield!” Leonard yelled out.

Of course. She’s learned this strategy on Themyscira from Shado and practiced it often enough with Laurel. Leonard must have seen it used during the battle of the beach. If this was done right, she could get the boost to the bell tower and take out the sniper there.

Sara ran towards the door as fast as she could and leapt up onto it. When she prepared to jump again, she felt herself get boosted upward and soared towards the bell toward with her shield in front of her. As she slammed into the stone, it collapsed around her. Dust filled the air and she had to move a piece of stone off her foot before she could stand back up and walk to the edge of the building. Below, the villagers had now emerged from their houses and were cheering below. They looked so happy that it managed to bring a smile to her own face.

When she got back down, people crowded around her, shaking her hand and thanking her so much for what she had done for them. An elderly gentleman asked to take a photograph of the heroes who had saved Veld from the Germans. Leonard offered a brief explanation of what it was and Sara agreed to join him and the other men of their little team. They had her stand at the center with the other four flanking her.

“Thank you so much,” the man said once it had been taken. “It has been a great honor.”

Once he left, Leonard turned to her. “So, now you’re officially a hero.”

“We all are,” Sara told him.

“Maybe,” Leonard shrugged. “But you’re the one who decided to go save the village. Everyone else would have tried to keep on moving. You’re better than the rest of us, Sara.”

* * *

 

               Leonard managed to find a phone in the small town and made a call to Lisa and Druce. Sara listened beside him to everything that was being said. Lisa informed them that she had located Savage at the German High Command a few miles away from Veld and that he was hosting a gala the next day before the armistice was signed. In addition to Savage, Valentina Vostak was also going to be there, so they could stop both of them at once. Unfortunately, that was when Druce ordered them to stay away from the gala to prevent jeopardization of the armistice.

“Well, if we don’t stop Savage from bombing the front lines with Vostak’s gas, there’s not really going to be an armistice happening,” Leonard snarked back.

“Ares would never let that peace happen though,” Sara told Leonard just as something suddenly clicked. She should have figured it out sooner given all Leonard had told her.

“Sara? What is it?”

“I get it now,” she murmured. “Ares developed a weapon. One of the worst ever devised.”

“Ares,” Leonard said slowly. “You mean Savage?”

She shook her head. “He’s Ares. Savage is Ares.”

* * *

 

“Leonard, come on.”

“Thanks but no thanks,” Leonard shook his head. “I need to figure out what we’re going to do tomorrow to get into that gala.”

Cisco dipped his head in a nod. “All right, I’ll leave the architect to his design. But in case you change your mind.”

He placed two mugs of beer on the empty fountain that Leonard and Sara were sitting on before heading back into the tavern to join the villagers’ celebration of the victory.

“A plan will come,” Sara told him, picking up the mug.

               Even before Sara realized Savage was Ares, Leonard was still determined to get in and stop him from releasing the gas. However, Druce remained firm that they were to go nowhere near the castle where it was being held. Leonard responded by hanging up on him without another word. They were on their own even more than ever to get into the castle and stop Savage and Vostak. With less than a full day to figure out their plan, they were going to need something soon.

“I hope it does,” Leonard replied, taking his mug and clinking it with hers. “You were incredible out there.”

“Of course I was,” she smirked, taking a sip of the drink while watching the couples sway to music in the square.

“The reason they’re out here right now, laughing instead of hiding away, it’s because of you.”

“It was a combined effort of all of us.”

Leonard noticed she was watching the people now. “Does Themyscira have dancing?”

“It does,” she told him. “This isn’t dancing though. It’s swaying.”

“Swaying, huh? Well, if you’re going into battle with the god of war tomorrow, then I can at least show you how to dance.”

“You mean to sway.”

“In the world of men, this is what dancing is,” he smirked, offering his hand to her. “Shall we?”

“Guess I should know if I’m going to that gala,” Sara agreed, taking his hand.

“Are you sure you want to?”

“Why wouldn’t I?” she scoffed as he led her out among the other swayers.

“You don’t know how to dance.”

“I know how to dance. These people don’t.”

“Then humor me,” he said. “Now put your hand in mine.”

Soon enough, they were swaying together in the square. Sara felt a slight flush start to creep in her cheeks. She was closer to Leonard than she’d ever been before. Yet she didn’t mind the lack of distance between them. If anything, she would say that she liked it.

Someone was singing far behind them. Both turned to see Mick leaning against a piano, providing vocal accompaniment to the man who was playing.

“Unbelievable,” Leonard murmured. “It’s been years since I heard him sing.”

Sara opened her mouth to ask when he’d last heard Mick sing but was distracted by something white falling from the sky. She gazed up as more and more white flakes descended down to the Earth. They stuck to her hair and cloak. The ones that hit her skin gently felt cold.

“It’s snow,” Leonard told her.

               Themyscira never had anything like this. It was almost always sunny and warm there. Sometimes there were days when there would be rain, or the morning would bring a cold air that chilled her skin. Sara smiled as she remembered those chilly mornings where she and Laurel would see how many steps they could take across the floor to get to their cloaks. The one who took the fewer steps was the winner between them.

However, seeing snow, something cold and beautiful that never came to the island, felt magical.

“It is, isn’t it?” Leonard said, making Sara realize she’d spoken aloud.

“This we don’t have on the island,” she laughed. “Is this swaying what people do when there aren’t wars?”

“Sometimes. There’s other stuff. They read the paper, they have a breakfast, they go to work. Some of them get married, have some babies, grow old together. I’m pretty sure that’s what they do. I’m not the expert.”

“I wonder what it’s like,” Sara murmured.

Leonard nodded. “Sometimes I do too.”

               More snow was falling from the sky now. Leonard reached out and pushed a strand that had caught several flakes back behind her ear. Sara leaned forward a little as he did, now even closer to him. She could feel his breath on her lips before she brushed them against his. Then she found herself closing the distance to kiss him as the snow fell around them

* * *

 

               A group of villagers in Veld gave them horses and supplies for their journey to the castle. When they arrived, Jax procured a car parked in a field for Leonard and Cisco to use in order to get in. Sara’s instructions were to wait outside and watch for Savage and Vostak in the event they escaped. But she needed to end Savage- Ares as soon as she saw him and before he could make a move to destroy the armistice. When she saw a woman walking from her car in the blue gown who was just her height, a new plan formulated and she made the decision to act on it.

The woman would be fine. Her head would hurt and she’d be a little cold when she woke up, but fine.

               As Sara entered the room where all the attendees were, her eyes landed on Savage almost immediately. Leonard was talking with Vostak by a fireplace and stared at her once he caught sight of her. Sara ignored him and made her way towards Savage, reaching her hand behind her back to withdraw the sword she had placed there. As she did, Savage took a step forward, sweeping her up into a dance.

“Are you enjoying the party?” he asked her, leading her in the steps.

“Maybe, but I don’t know why we’re celebrating.”

“For the German victory, of course.”

“But I have heard peace is coming in the form of the armistice.”

Savage scowled. “The armistice will not last. We are in an endless war. Peace is nothing more than a name.”

Sara had read that before. “Plato.”

“You’re familiar with the ancient Greeks?” Savage sounded pleased. “They understood war, that he was a god. Such gods require human sacrifice, and in return men are given purpose. Men then have a chance to rise up from their petty little lives and be courageous and noble.”

“There are many gods, but only one of them believed that,” Sara said. “And he was wrong.”

Savage chuckled. “And what do you know of the gods?”

               Just before she could show him, an aide came up and informed Savage that he was needed elsewhere. Savage gave her an oily smile and told her to enjoy the display before leaving. Sara made to move after him, her hand reaching back for her sword. Again, her hand was caught, and she was pulled into a dance. This time, it was Leonard who stopping her.

“Leonard!” she hissed.

“Sara, I want him dead as much as you do,” he whispered. “But we need Savage to find the gas. If we kill him without that information, then we have no idea where it will be or what he’s going to do with it.”

“It will stop anyways as soon as I kill Ares!” Sara snapped back.

Leonard sighed. “Sara, are you sure there is an Ares? Are you sure that it’s Savage?”

“Yes!” she insisted before something dawned on her. “But you don’t believe me, do you?”

“I want you to be sure you have the right guy before you do this.”

“What I do is not up to you,” Sara spat as she shoved him back and stormed towards the doors.

               By the time she was out of the castle, the cannons had just started firing in the direction of Veld. Deep down, Sara knew that it was the gas that Vostak had developed. Leonard was shouting behind her, but she ignored him and made a run for one of the horses she’d ridden her. She shed the dress and mounted the horse, surprising Cisco, Mick, and Jax. No matter how fast she urged the animal on, Sara still arrived to see an orange fog covering the entire village.

Everyone was dead. A whole village she had saved yesterday, and now they were all dead.

When she stumbled out back to her horse, Leonard was coughing by her horse. “Sara?”

“They’re dead. All of them.”

“Shit,” Leonard shook his head. “Sara-”

“No, don’t!” she shook her head. “They would still be alive if you didn’t stop me from killing Ares!”

“Sara, they still would have shot-”

“Get back!” she ordered. She had trusted Leonard, grown closer to him. “It’s not just the Germans Ares corrupted. It’s everyone, even you! I have to end this. I have to kill Ares!”

She climbed back up on her horse when Leonard ran up. “Sara, look at the smoke!”

Her head swiveled to see black smoke rising in the distance.

“I had Cisco, Mick, and Jax follow Savage. The smoke’s coming from where he is. Follow it!”

Sara nodded. “Thank you.”

* * *

 

Savage only noticed her after she broke into the watchtower he was in and she threw one of his soldiers off the edge.

“The woman who knew her Greeks,” he smirked. “What a surprise. However, I have another matter to attend to.”

He quickly drew out his pistol and fired at her. Sara threw up her bracelet, deflecting the bullet right back into the chamber and surprising Savage.

“What…are you?” he growled, now angry.

“You will soon find out.”

               He made a run for the window, turning his back to her. Sara ran after him and placed a hand on his shoulder just as he gave an inhuman roar. When he turned back around, there was rage in his eyes that had not been there before. As they fought, she was sure with the sudden strength he had and his attacks with a golden dagger that he had to be Ares. This was what the Amazons had been training her for all those years, yet she let down her guard for him to kick her to the floor.

“You might be magnificent,” Savage taunted, holding the sword over her. “But you are still no match for me.”

When he brought down the sword, Sara savored his shock as she caught it between her hands. “We’ll see about that.”

               With that, she rose from the ground and battled harder, as if she was fighting Shado all over again. Even though Savage tried to make an escape on top of the tower, Sara followed him. She managed to throw the lasso around him as she jumped into the air before bringing him down onto the roof. He groaned, not getting up as Sara now towered over him.

“I am Sara of Themyscira, daughter of Dinah, queen of the Amazons. Your wrath upon this world is over. In the name of all that is good in this world, I hereby complete the mission of the Amazons as I rid this world of you forever.”

With that, she drove the sword into Savage’s chest. He tried to rise, but succumbed to the might of the Godkiller.

Sara stood back up.

When she looked back out, the fighting hadn’t stopped. Gas bombs were still being shuttled out towards planes.

“Sara!”

Leonard was standing on the platform below her, staring up at her.

“I killed him,” she murmured.

“I can see that.”

“I killed him and nothing stopped. That’s what was supposed to happen. You kill the god of war, the war ends.”

“We’re gonna do that,” Leonard told her as she jumped down. “We need to stop the gas from going up in those planes.”

Sara shook her head. “But it should have stopped. The fighting should have stopped. How come they’re still loading the planes and fighting?”

“I don’t know!” Leonard shouted. “Sara-”

“I killed Ares, people should stop fighting? I ended this, why are they still going?”

“Because people aren’t always good like you are!” he told her. “You think I’m good? I was a thief and a liar because life made me that way before the war. I’m not the only one. Ares or no Ares, that’s who they are. But there are people who see good and change for the better. That’s what happened to me and a lot of other people. And if we don’t stop this gas, then there’s going to be a lot of people who might never get the chance to be the best version of themselves. Come on, let’s go find the others.”

Sara shook her head. “You go.”

“Sara-”

“I have seen people killing each other because they belong to another side. It’s not right. Before I left Themyscira, my mother told me the world of men does not deserve me. It’s only now I see that she was right.”

Leonard shook his head. “It’s not about who deserves help. Maybe your mom is right and we don’t. After everything I’ve seen in this war, it’s not so much about who deserves what. What matters is that you believe in what you’re fighting for. I want a better world for Lisa and Cisco and Mick and Jax. You have no idea how much I wish it was one guy who I could end and make everything okay, but it’s not one person. We’re all to blame. Everyone has caused misery on someone else whether they know it or not. I know I have.”

“But you’re trying to stop the war.”

“Maybe I am, but it can’t take back all the things I’ve done that hurt people,” he replied. “You bring out the best in people, and you brought out the best in me. If you believe this war should stop, come with us and help stop it. Thousands can be saved if we do this right now.”

Sara gave a ghost of a smile and repeated her words from earlier. “You go.”

Leonard looked disappointed, but turned to climb down the ladder to the ground.

“Whatever you do next, good luck,” he told her before disappearing.

Sara watched him leave with the others and closed her eyes. She had thought had everything worked out. Now she knew she had rushed into this. But she had been so sure it was Savage who was Ares.

Wind brushed her hair and Sara whirled around. Through the window of the booth, she saw a man standing by a desk.

“Who’s there?”

“You’re right, Sara,” a familiar voice chuckled. “The humans don’t deserve our help. They only deserve destruction.”

Sara froze as she stared at Druce. Leonard had asked if she had been certain that Savage was Ares, and she had been. Now she realized that she had been so, so wrong.

“You,” she said. “You’re Ares.”

A cold smile confirmed it. “Indeed I am.”

* * *

 

Sara leaped up and pulled the Godkiller from Savage’s body. When she came leap back down, Ares was in the same place he had been.

“There’s no need for that, Sara,” he sighed. “I am not your enemy. If anything, I’m the only one who truly knows you and knows what the human race is really like. You see it now, but they have always been this way. Weak, cruel, selfish, capable of great atrocities against each other.”

She ran into the room, but no one was there anymore. As Sara walked in further, Ares spoke behind her again.

“The only thing I ever wanted was for the other gods to see how evil my father’s creation was-”

“I am Sara of Themyscira.”

“When they didn’t, I had to destroy them.”

“Daughter of Dinah, and I am here to complete the mission of the Amazons!”

She turned and thrust the Godkiller forward. Ares simply raised his hand as the blade touched it. As she pushed the sword forward, the blade shattered against his hand. Stunned, Sara drew back the useless hilt. This didn’t make sense. It should have killed Ares where he stood.

“How…”

“Oh, you naïve child. The sword is not the Godkiller. You are.”

No.

“Only a god can kill another god,” Ares continued. “The Amazon queen made one daughter out of clay. But Zeus left the child he conceived with her as a weapon to be used against me.”

Sara shook her head. That meant her mother had lied to her and her sister since they were children. However, this was Ares talking. She pulled out the lasso and threw the end around him.

“I command you to tell me the truth,” she ordered.

The god didn’t look fazed. “I am.”

* * *

 

               Since his fall, Ares had been lingering about the mortal world for centuries. He spent all that time showing them ideas and providing inspiration for all kinds of things to create war, but the humans had made the choice to start the wars on their own. His role as Zaman Druce had been to set up the armistice since he knew Savage’s attack would break it and keep the war going on and on.

               Now, he wanted Sara to join him in driving the humans into extinction. While he explained he first wanted to kill her in London, Ares now saw that the combination of their powers could bring the world back to what it once was. A paradise without mortals to ruin it. It would their ultimate victory, and the Amazons would no longer have to hide themselves on an island.

               Sara refused to ally herself with him. Ares tried to persuade her again, but she denied him once more. So the words soon turned to violence between them as he used the lasso to blast the watchtower to pieces. Sara hit the ground hard, but she got right back up to face him. Unfortunately, Ares was prepared, throwing everything and anything in her path. The fight with Savage has been sparring compared to this.

               Sara finally managed to run forward and land a punch, sending him sprawling back. When Ares got back up, his fingertips crackled with electricity and a maniacal look was on his face. He was loving this fight, she realized as she threw a case of shells at him. However, he sent them right back at her and quick thinking made her toss a larger shell at the incoming ones. The blast blew her back into the air, a weightless feeling taking over her before she slammed into the ground.

“Sara!” she heard through the ringing of her ears. “Are you alright?”

Leonard was leaning down beside her. She took his hand as he helped her up. He said something that was lost in the ringing.

“What was that?”

He glanced at a plane nearby them. “I have to go.”

“What?” Sara frowned. “What do you mean? Whatever is it, let me come with you.”

“No, I have to bring down the plane. Alone”

The way he said it made her stomach drop. “No. I can do it. Let me do it.”

“It has to be me, Sara. I can save today, but you can save the world.”

Sara shook her head.

“You know, I had a dream last night, about what the future could hold for me…and you…and me and you,” Leonard forced a smile. “Guess it’s going to stay a dream. Too bad we couldn’t get more time.”

“No.”

He slipped his watch into her hand.

“I love you.”

Sara gazed down at it. When she lifted her head, she watched him run towards the plane. “LEONARD!”

He looked back once, but kept running before jumping up onto the plane’s wing as it was still going across the runway. Sara watched as he disappeared into an opening. Seconds later, a soldier toppled out onto the ground and the plane slowly rose into the air. Sara didn’t want to stop watching, but her eyes turned back to the flaming inferno where Ares had been, except there was now an armored figure walking out of it.

Sara started to run at him. She had promised Laurel that she would end Ares and she couldn’t break it now. However, she was now dealing with the swords he sculpted from the shell metal along with everything else around them. Ares formed chains and used them as his own lassos, slamming her into cars with them. Whatever she was dealt with, Sara kept telling herself to get back up and fight. Whether it was hand to hand or using the lasso, she didn’t give in.

Ares lunged at her, wrapping his hand around her throat and flying them into the air. “Is that ALL you have to offer? I thought the Amazons were warriors!”

He brought them down to the ground slamming them into a tank. Sara rolled away from him, but as soon as she got up, two thick bands of metal wrapped around her and threw her down in the ground. They seemed to be coiling tighter and tighter around her. She struggled to free herself as Ares loomed over her.

“My dear, it’s futile to imagine you can win,” he taunted. “Give up now, Sara. Perhaps I shall spare you then.”

               Sara turned away from them, only to spot Cisco, Jax, and Mick in the distance. They were exchanging fire with German soldiers from behind a stack of crates but had ran out of ammo. None of them had anything left as the Germans advanced on them. Jax took Cisco’s hand while Mick put himself in front of the two, prepared to take the bullets meant for them.

Unable to watch her friends die, Sara gazed up at the sky where the plane Leonard was on gained more and more altitude.

“Leonard,” she whispered.

Seconds ticked by. Then the plane was engulfed in a fiery explosion that lit up the whole sky.

               Sara screamed, pain filling her entire body. Anger followed that, and she found the strength to break out of the metal binding her on the ground. Germans began to fire on her, but Sara deflected the bullets before sprinting towards them. She tore through them, rage over Leonard’s sacrifice fueling her fight.

“Yes, Sara, embrace it,” Ares bellowed as she stood before the flames. “Look at this world. See how ugly mankind have made it. They are ugly with so much hatred, and they are weak like your Captain Snart. He tried to be a hero, but he could never escape being a thief. He deserved what he got.”

“STOP!” Sara roared, running and beating upon him. He didn’t deserve to speak his name. She wanted Ares to feel all pain in the world now.

Ares tossed her off before swiping a hand forward. A car tumbled over itself towards them, spilling out a woman with a mask on half of her face. Sara recognized her as Valentina Vostak. A powerful force ripped the pieces of the mask from her face. Underneath, the skin was melted and twisted, part of the nose deformed, and a sightless eye stared up at her.

“Look at her,” Ares said. “Dr. Vostak is the perfect example of the human evil. She made the gas your captain died to destroy. Now you can end her, Sara. She deserves it, just like every one of them.”

Sara lifted the tank next to her, raising it above Vostak. The scientist stared up at her but did not make a move to run. Ares was right, her gas had set off a reaction that led to Leonard dying. Right now, she could drop this tank on her and kill Vostak. It would be so easy to do it.

“DO IT!” Ares yelled.

               Suddenly, Sara thought back to Shado, who put herself between Sara and a bullet so Sara could defeat Ares. She remembered her mother and sister, all the way back on Themyscira. How she had been raised to be good and just, even with her rebellious spirit. Closing her eyes, she remembered the past few days with Leonard, the first man she had met. Fighting side by side, him explaining things to her patiently, dancing in the square, and now saying goodbye.

_“I can save today, but you can save the world.”_ That’s what he had told her.

She couldn’t become a monster like Ares. Maybe Leonard had once been a thief, but he died as a hero. He had died a good man, and there had to be others like him.

“No,” she threw the tank away from Vostak. “You’re wrong about them.

Vostak finally climbed to her feet and fled. Sara didn’t pursue her, instead striding towards Ares.

“They are everything you’ve said,” she told Ares. “But they’re also more than that. And they can change.”

“Lies!” Ares sent a wave of metal spears towards her before leaping at her.

The spears disintegrated before her, as though she was surrounded by some kind of field. When Ares was closer, Sara crossed her bracelets and sent him sprawling back.

Ares now summoned lightning from the sky and threw it at her. “Fool! They don’t deserve your protection!”

“It’s not about who deserves help,” Sara caught the lighting on her bracelets, smiling as it coursed around the metal. “You have to believe in what you’re fighting for. And I don’t believe in fighting for destruction of man. I believe in love.”

“Then I will destroy you, sister!”

More lighting was summoned from the sky and thrown at her. Sara crossed her arms before her, bracing herself as the surge pushed her back. When she straightened up, more lighting was curling around her wrists. It was enough to kill a god.

“Goodbye, brother,” Sara told Ares.

She leapt into the air, hovering there for a second. Closing her eyes, she channeled her collected lighting at the god of war. The warmth of the blast radiated over her as she lowered herself back to the ground. Opening her eyes, she saw a burnt scorch where Ares had been standing as the first rays of light signaled the arrival of dawn.

Turning around, Sara saw Cisco, Mick, and Jax all still alive. German soldiers were getting up from the ground, looking in awe at the pink and red streaked sky. They all looked relieved to be alive, and all started to celebrate their survival. There wasn’t an ounce of the hate she had seen earlier between them. Just joy and happiness.

It was a shame that Leonard hadn’t been able to witness it.

* * *

 

               Not too long after the battle with Ares, Sara was back in London. The war was officially over and people were celebrating its end. However, it was a bittersweet occasion for many whose loved ones weren’t coming back. Lisa had been having an especially rough time with it, although Cisco did everything to make sure she knew she wasn’t the only one grieving.

               Their little group met up in Trafalgar Square amongst waving flags and happy reunions. Cisco, Mick, Jax, and Lisa were all happy to be together with her, but they were there for a different reason from most people. A board had been put up with pictures and letters of those who lost their lives. Lisa moved forward to tack up a photograph of Leonard in uniform.

Sara gazed at it for a minute, remembering once more their short time together. Her hand reached out to brush the printed face.

He should have been here with them.

She slipped away from the others and moved through the crowd until she reached the edge of the street and stared at the grey clouds above.

Now that the war was over, what was she going to do?

* * *

 

               Sara smiled at the photographic plate one more. Then she set it back inside the case and opened her desk drawer. Reaching in, she pulled out Leonard’s watch, running a finger over its face. Years ago, she had worn it, but then decided to keep it tucked away safely so it wouldn’t get damaged. It was the only thing she had left to remind her of him and the first World War, although she knew there was a child, some grandchildren, and also great-grandchildren of Cisco and Lisa out there in the world.

Pulling over her tablet, Sara opened an email to Nyssa.

_Thank you for bringing him back to me. Maybe I can tell you my story next time we met._

**Author's Note:**

> This is possibly not the last you'll see of Wonder Woman Sara. I have thoughts of a Justice League mini fic.
> 
> Hope you all enjoyed!


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